Marianna Kesyk
Marianna Kesyk is perhaps best known as the first-ever champion of the Galactic Swordplay Tournament, though she is also a decorated soldier and an adept chef. Personal History Marianna grew up in Korea, a comfortably middle-class household packed with siblings and relatives. Brimming with attitude, ambition and an adventurous spirit, she frequently got into fights as a child, but calmed down in her teenage years. At seventeen years old, shortly after finishing high school, she became enamoured with the idea of seeing the galaxy and became the first of her siblings to decide to leave Earth. She backpacked through most of the nations of the galaxy for roughly two years before finally settling on Akanda. She applied for citizenship shortly afterwards, and, seeking excitement, joined the Royal Izeran Marines a year later. She soon developed a passion for the service and was quickly recognized as a model soldier. Four years into her service, she was decorated and promoted for her outstanding performance in the Freedom War. Specifically, during OPERATION BACKSCATTER, a joint operation between the R.I.M. and Atuei Eifa. while most of her squad was wounded and pinned down by Kaladian infantry forces, who were also preventing their extraction from the battlefield, Kesyk volunteered to distract the hostile solders to give the rest of the squad more time to escape. Instead of merely distracting the enemy, however, she managed to kill fifteen enemy soldiers in under three minutes, causing the rest of them to retreat. Kesyk was shot eight times in the process, but retained consciousness and lucidity from the extraction point to the field hospital, despite being in incredible pain. The event earned her her decorations and the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At twenty-four years old, she was the youngest Marine to ever achieve the rank. Kesyk served for six more years, achieving the rank of Colonel, before retiring in 3540 to spend more time with her family and her young niece, Linda Kesyk, who was eleven at the time. Able to rely on both a not-insignificant personal fortune and her wealthy sister for support, Kesyk took a few years to explore a few hobbies that she'd neglected in her youth, and found she had a knack for the culinary arts. Despite this, she claimed to miss the excitement of her days as a Marine, and searched for more interesting hobbies. And so, just over a year after retiring, she took up swordplay and quickly developed a passion for it. Although it had started as a pass-time, Kesyk wanted to commit to it and pursued it professionally as a fencer. She quickly gained notoriety in the Izeran Fencing circuit and confidently entered the first G.S.T., becoming its first champion in 3545 and wining twice more before she retired and turned to coaching Izeran hopefuls. To date, Kesyk has only come out of retirement once, in 3551, to fight in the G.S.T's special tournament. She won 2.7 million Shii for the Galactic War Orphans' Fund. Timeline *3510 - born *3527 - left Earth (17) *3530 - joined Marines (20) *3534 - was a huge badass (24) *3540 - retired (30) *3541 - started sword-fighting (31) *3545 - champion (35) *3546 - champ again (36) *3547 - champ once more, retires as undefeated, starts coaching (37) *3551 - unretires to kick ass and take names, then retires again (41) *3555 - still coaching (45) Category:Izera Category:People Category:Humans Category:Izeran